The Cuyahoga County commissioners may very well have selected the best available site for a medical mart and convention center. But the way in which they went about it makes it difficult for the public to have much faith in their choice.

Given both the size of the public investment involved here and the potential boost to the region's economy, that is absolutely unacceptable. Public buy-in is vital, and it starts by giving the public not only a decision -- which this editorial board has been as eager as anyone to see -- but enough information to judge it.

Last Thursday, after a pair of meetings from which reporters and the general public were excluded, the commissioners settled on Mall B -- site of the current city-owned convention hall -- as their preferred location for the new meeting, exhibition and showroom complex. The timing surprised the county's chief negotiator with Merchandise Mart Properties Inc., the project's private-sector developer, and even Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones, who expected his colleagues to deliberate for at least another week. Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson also left the first meeting believing that a decision was close, but not imminent.

But Commissioners Tim Hagan and Jimmy Dimora apparently had heard enough during MMPI's briefing on the probable costs and assets of competing sites to think they could make a call without further delay or public scrutiny. The key selling point was MMPI's conclusion that it would cost $108 million less to redevelop the current convention center site than to build new on a pedestal overlooking the Cuyahoga River behind the Terminal Tower. A last-minute bid by developer Scott Wolstein to include the complex in his stalled East Flats project received little or no consideration.

Assuming the cost estimates are correct, the mall option would be hard to beat. Although it does not offer the convenience of a Rapid train from the airport to Terminal Tower, it can be connected to two major hotels and is within comfortable walking distance of other downtown hotels, Public Square, East Fourth Street and the Warehouse District. With some creativity, it also can be easily connected to the RTA's Waterfront Line, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Great Lakes Science Center.

In addition, MMPI officials believe Public Auditorium can be rapidly retrofitted to accommodate small trade shows and meetings, and thus give Cleveland a head start on a possible New York medical mart while the main construction is under way.

But the huge cost differential is based largely on an engineering study, commissioned by MMPI, that concluded that the foundation of the current hall could be reused, and that there would be no need to dig deeper toward the water table. Previous studies all assumed a full and very expensive excavation of the current site. Even though MMPI is to be responsible for cost overruns on the project, the commissioners wisely insisted on a second opinion.

They need to share that assessment with the public. They also need to release all engineering studies and cost assumptions -- whether prepared by MMPI, public employees or outside consultants -- that were used in making this decision, as well as the latest architectural sketches. And they need to provide some accounting of how costs at Terminal Tower -- and the East Bank, for that matter -- were evaluated, since the owners say they had little chance to present their ideas.

Hagan promised Friday to make all studies available this week. It's a must.

The same level of transparency will be required as the commissioners negotiate a development agreement with MMPI -- one that balances the firm's goals with the public's interest in a civic center with broad uses -- and begin acquiring property, including the antiquated convention center itself.

Done right, the medical mart project can be a cornerstone of the region's economic future. But unless citizens believe their elected representatives are acting on good information and in good faith, we may never get there.

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